This article is part of a series featuring recent alumni and their exit essay interviews upon program completion. Ruolin “Lynn” Tu earned the Master of Cinematic Arts with an emphasis in Media Arts, Games & Health and their portfolio is here.
Describe your background and how you shaped your MA studies to integrate within the program.
During my undergrad time, I was enrolled in the BFA Design program and had an ITP specialization in Web technology and application. I added Neuroscience as a minor out of interest and later turned it into a second major. I didn’t work for any lab because I wasn’t sure where I should go from here and it was unlikely that I would go pursue a graduate degree in neuroscience. Then I got into the Games and Health MA program. This interdisciplinary program offers the freedom to explore my previous expertise in a non-traditional way and also integrate newly acquired skills such as qualitative research and game design and development into my practices.
What are core resources did you use at USC, CMBHC and Cinematic Arts to achieve your goals?
The resources I used during my degree were mainly access to faculties and professors and lab resources such as equipment and connections with lab-affiliated alumni where I got some help for my projects. However, I later realized that there were a lot more connections and resources I wasn’t aware of and that I probably should reach out more actively to other faculties, labs, or organizations to seek additional support or to find more opportunities.
What were your major accomplishments during your degree?
As someone who has no prior game design or production experience, I’d consider participating in the production of two games from beginning to launch as one accomplishment: during my first year of the project, I worked as the usability and UX design lead for Machine Heart, an advanced game project; in my second year, I worked for Cards of Heart, a thesis game themed around mental wellness directed by Marielle Brady from the MFA games and health program. I led a small UX team to create the UX design structure of the game as well as produce UI art.
My integrative project (described below) and the PlayPenXR OT project where Sherry Xie and I designed and created Pawsitive Recovery, a game prototype for burned hand rehabilitation, would be my other major accomplishments.
Which classes were most helpful to your growth and education?
CTIN 541 is one required class I found helpful since I don’t have previous experience in game design. It’s a great introductory class that provided me with some basic theories and serval valuable project experiences.
Another helpful class is CTIN 510. I had some training in quantitative research and basic statistics for psychological research during my undergrad program, but I had no experience in qualitative research. I learned about some basic methods of qualitative research as well as learned to use some of the software for processing qualitative data which I found helpful for my later projects.
An elective I felt helpful was the Alternative Control Class. Though I had to admit I didn’t gain a lot of technical knowledge from the lecture, the class has provided some useful overview and introduced some resources of a field in which I was interested but had no idea where to start.
How did you use your directed research time?
My directed research time was mostly spent on working on my integrative project – ideation, design, and development, as well as drafting and revising the paper for the integrative project. I also spent directed research time on the lab projects I worked on and sometimes on coursework from CTIN 575 and 510.
Summarize your integrative project.
For my integrated project, I worked on a prototype for a casual music game for attention training that utilizes EEG biofeedback for dynamic difficulty adjustment to encourage a flow experience in the player. My integrative project also includes a paper that describes the background research, the design, and concept testing of the prototype, as well as a discussion on the future direction of the game and its potential as one component of non-pharmacological interventions for delirium in critically ill patients.
Where do you wish to be in 1, 3, 5 and 10 years?
I have some general direction although don’t have a very clear career or life plan yet. In the next year, I want to keep working on/ expand on some of the projects I’ve worked on, such as my integrative project, and hopefully translate them into something with some real impact. I also want to develop some skills I want to have, like development and 3D skills. In 3 years, I wish to have some more project experiences, whether they’re professional projects or personal projects; ideally, I’d like to have a clearer idea of which niche I want to get into at this point. In 5 years, I hope to get into the field I feel passionate about and with competency. Ten years from now I wish I can be somewhat stabilized in the field I’d like to keep working in.
What do you think is the biggest challenge in interdisciplinary work?
I think the biggest challenge to do interdisciplinary work may be communicating between people from different fields while collaboration would likely be an unavoidable part of interdisciplinary work. To communicate with someone with other expertise, one needs to know the language from both (or all) disciplines well to build a picture that can be understood by all.
What recommendations do you have to other students in your program for them to be successful?
The Media Arts, Games, and Health program offers a high freedom over course choice compared to other programs in the IMGD division. Although this program can be a great opportunity to explore various options for someone who’s transitioning to the interdisciplinary game/ design field, it may be helpful to have a specific direction or a list of skills in mind and choose electives accordingly. Two years can be a short time if someone wants to get deeper in a certain area given that many courses have pre-requisite and codependency. As for class selection, a great use of the opportunity is to take any classes of interest outside the game department or even SCA. Also, I feel that the MA program is relatively self-directed, having some general direction in mind on what kind of project you’d like to use would help you utilize the directed research and integrative project time more effectively.